Delicious homemade jelly is an appetizer that takes pride of place on everyday and festive tables. The "correct" dish is hearty, transparent, thick, made on the basis of assorted meat. It must contain jelly-forming components - pork legs, oxtails, beef bones, head, or at least chicken legs. Not everyone knows how to cook jellied meat deliciously without gelatin. Meanwhile, for this it is enough to observe 6 simple rules.
- To make the appetizer truly tasty and not need gelatin, it is recommended to cook jellied meat from pork legs at the rate of one part of the roll - two parts of meat (beef edge, chicken). If possible, you can replace them with other jelly-forming parts of the mascara, although finding an oxtail or head is more difficult. All raw materials must be: free of signs of frost; with a pleasant smell; not too greasy. If the chicken is only a rustic one, an old rooster is optimal.
- To get a delicious jellied meat at home, to ensure the transparency of the broth and the delicate taste of the dish, before cooking, the meat must be soaked overnight in cold water. This will remove the clotted blood. In the morning, scrape off all the ingredients and scorch the skin. Pour water over the meat, and when it boils, drain and rinse thoroughly both the raw materials and the dishes. Only then can you start cooking directly.
- The taste and hardening of homemade jellied meat without gelatin will provide slow and prolonged simmering of meat and bone broth for 6-8 hours in a saucepan with a lid ajar. Immediately it is necessary to take a spacious dish, since it will not be possible to add anything if too much liquid boils away! Pour the raw materials with cold (!) Water about 2-5 cm from the meat level. When it boils, skim off the foam and make very low heat. Remove foam from time to time.
- When the future jellied meat is cooked for 4, 5-5 hours, you need to put peeled vegetables - a head of onion, carrots. To obtain a golden color of the broth, wash the onion, but do not peel it. Salt can be added at this time. It is permissible to do this even after cooking, but then the meat will partially absorb it and you will have to salt a little more. When half an hour remains until the end of the broth simmering, put lavrushka and sweet peas, 2-3 garlic cloves. To make it easier to take out the spices when the dish is ready, they can be placed in a triple gauze bag and dipped on a thread into the pan, tied to the handle.
- You managed to cook jellied meat deliciously without gelatin, if it is sticky enough. To check if the broth is ready, drop it on your fingers - they should stick together. Now you need to manually (!) Separate the meat from the bones, disassemble it into pieces, chop the cartilage very finely for the density of the jellied meat. Remove spices and vegetables, filter the liquid. You need to immediately think about how the jellied meat will be served to the table, and depending on this, either mix the broth with the meat and pour everything into trays, or make layer-by-layer portions: place the meat in molds and pour the broth. At the bottom, if desired, make decorations from carrots, eggs, parsley.
- Correctly cooked jellied meat without gelatin will thicken perfectly in 5-6 hours, first in the room, then on the middle shelf of the refrigerator. It is recommended to eat cold meats after scraping off the fat from the top. If you need to remove portions from the mold, it should be immersed in hot water for a few seconds and turned upside down over the serving dish. Serve homemade jellied meat with grated horseradish, pickled (not sweetish) mustard.
Interesting facts about aspic
- Jellied meat, or jelly, was popular as early as the 16th century. In the Russian tradition, it was originally considered the food of the courtyards, with which they cooked broth from the remains of the master's table.
- Jelly was an excellent option for wholesome and satisfying food for hunters who carried it in birch bark bags.
- Jellied meat contains a lot of vitamins (groups B, A), microelements (calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, etc.), as well as glycine, which activates brain activity, helps to cope with depression and fears.
- Cold meat appetizer is very useful for problems with joints, bones, ligaments, because it contains a natural building material - collagen. However, due to the high calorie content and the large amount of cholesterol contained in the histamine dish, you should not introduce jellied meat into the diet every day.
